madbaker | (no subject)

I just finished Simon Morden's Arcanum. I enjoyed his Petrovich books, so I was willing to give this a shot - despite the previous books being post-apocalyptic technopunk and this being historic epic fantasy.

I liked it quite a bit more than I expected. Especially given the potentially fatal cliched plot (European feudal society based on magic, magic goes away). His characterization was excellent; people were flawed, but sometimes were heroic and sometimes did bad things for good reasons, or maybe reasons they thought were good. Like real people.

I heartily hope he is writing more in this setting. (

desperance, any insight?)

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I have no actual information at this time, about future books in this setting - but I can certainly uncover same, on account of Simon being a buddy and all. I love how good he is, and how various. I only hate how far away he is. (We used to drink together monthly, on First Mondays. I miss those.)

This was one of the few recent books where I found myself making extra time to read, rather than reading in spare time. Because I wanted to know what happened, and who it happened to. (Several twists I did not expect, especially in the last hundred pages.)